3. (1) All persons who in any year receive in harbours, terminal installations or offshore terminals, in the State, crude oil or fuel oil are hereby prescribed for the purposes of subsection (1) of section 19.

(2) All annual returns of crude oil or fuel oil to which subsection (1) of section 19 applies shall be submitted not later than the 31st day of January in the year immediately following the year to which the returns relate, and shall be in the form set out in the Schedule to these Regulations.

(3) The following persons are hereby prescribed for the purpose of subsection (2) of section 19, that is to say:

(a) any person who in any year receives in harbours, terminal installations or offshore terminals, in the State, amounts of crude oil or fuel oil the aggregate of which exceed 150,000 tonnes, and

(b) any person who in any year receives in harbours, terminal installations or offshore terminals, in the State, amounts of crude oil or fuel oil, where the aggregate of those amounts and such amounts of crude oil or fuel oil as are received in the same year by a company in which he has a controlling interest or (where the person is a company) a related company, in harbours, terminal installations or offshore terminals in the State, exceeds 150,000 tonnes.

(4) Sums determined under subsection (2) of section 19 in accordance with returns submitted to the Minister under subsection (1) of that section, shall be paid not later than the 1st day of February in the year immediately following the year to which the returns concerned relate.

(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation).

These Regulations provide that persons who receive more than 150,000 tonnes of crude or fuel oil each year must make an annual return to that effect to the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources and pay pro-rata annual contributions to the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund, 1992. The Fund's purpose is to provide compensation to victims of oil pollution damage.